1. Field
The following description relates to a surgical apparatus, and more particularly, to an arm module capable of precisely moving while ensuring a sufficient stiffness thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, an open surgery is generally performed, in which the abdomen is open for a surgery of the abdominal cavity and a surgery is carried out in a state of having the abdomen open. Because such an open surgery causes more pain and scarring while requiring more recovery time, much research has been conducted on a minimally invasive surgery (MIS).
Surgeries that are performed with minimal damage of a surgical portion of the body are commonly referred to as MIS. Examples of MIS include a laparoscopy. The laparoscopy is achieved by perforating a small incision hole into an inner part of a patient and filling gas in the inner part of the human body such that a working space is formed, and by inserting a laparoscope and a surgical instrument through the incision hole to perform a surgery. The laparoscopy is also referred to as a multi port surgery due to the fact that the surgery forms a plurality of incision holes.
The laparoscopy has a large number of benefits when compared to the open surgery, but because a plurality of incision holes are formed, laparoscopy still has some of the constraints associated with the open surgery.
Accordingly, many studies have been undertaken recently on a single port surgery that uses a single incision hole and a natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) that uses no incision hole.
The NOTES is performed by allowing an arm module to be inserted into a natural orifice, such as a mouth or an anus, and to approach a surgical portion of the body such that a surgery is conducted using a surgery instrument installed at an end portion of the arm module.
However, when the single port surgery or the NOTES is performed, the arm module is needed to pass along the internal part or the intestines of the patient that have curves, and also is needed to support the surgery instrument while being firmly fixed at the surgical portion.